the duchess will see you now

You Ain’t Seen Nothin’ Yeti

When feeling dejected and filled with self-pity, one should take up a task and set forth to do it. Preferably a task that challenges one’s physical strength and endurance. It is exactly what I needed this afternoon, and it worked. There is no time for self-pity when there is necessary physical labor at hand, which is how farmers and ranchers end up with so much integrity. This is one of the personality aspects I consider when I think about my grandparents and how much I respected the lives they led. Strength of character and endurance are virtues that I admire, and my grandparents possessed both. Actually, I think I grew to admire those virtues because of them, and not the other way around. This afternoon I began to feel as if the universe was plotting against me. I felt imminent loneliness peeking around the corner and I spent 2 hours building the darkness up. But Zia’s rental property needed to be shoveled and after driving over only to realize there was absolutely no place I could park my car without getting stuck I drove back home and determined to walk over, shovel in hand. As I walked, I ruminated over my troubles. As I shoveled, my mood lifted. And soon enough after I returned home the universe changed it’s course and rewarded me with the return of Yimmy. As unexpected a sight as a Yeti, only better.

Men take more pains to lose themselves than would be requisite to keep them in the right road. — K. H. Digby

Happiness consists in activity: such is the constitution of our nature: it is a running stream, and not a stagnant pool. — Good